Aaron West And The Roaring Twenties are back, and they’re asking that “In Lieu Of Flowers,” you listen to their new single. The upcoming album of the same name comes out on April 12 via Hopeless Records. After five years since their last LP, it comes in swinging with the same emotional jolt to your nervous system as their previous releases.
The title track is heart-wrenching and gives a pit-in-your-stomach feeling of regret and mourning. The horns section welcomes the incoming melancholy of the lyrics, it gives listeners a replication of sending someone off for their last fight in battle. “I bit the ulcer on my tongue/And spilled my guts in your driveway/I’ve been hollow for so long,” reverberates the anxiety felt from addressing a bad situation and learning how to own up to your mistakes.
The act, led by Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years, is also a fictional narrative following a character named Aaron West. The larger novel behind this excerpt, though, is a life marked with grief, divorce, and death that’s caused a lot of complications.
In the band’s previous releases, detail the full trials and tribulations Aaron goes through until he gets to this new chapter with In Lieu Of Flowers. In 2024, Aaron faces the task of stitching his open wounds in hopes of moving on and healing.
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Many bands have done concept albums throughout the years, yet a full band that follows a tale is something different. Campbell explains that the full ethos of the project is like pro wrestling. “What makes the storytelling come alive is the buy-in. There’s this arena full of people, and they know that person in the ring isn’t an undead zombie mortician….but they buy into it because that mass suspension of disbelief is where the magic is.”
Fans can catch the album release show on April 11 at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, NJ. The band will be livestream the event for fans who are unable to make it in person. You can find tickets for in-person and online viewing on their site.
